The Political Situation[1]

Written:Written on July 10 (23), 1917Published:Published on August 2 (July 20), 1917, inProletarskoye DyeloNo. 6.

      Signed:W.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 25,

      pages178-180.Translated:Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.  

      2002You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Thecounter-revolution has become organised and consolidated,
      and has actually taken state power into its hands.

Thecomplete organisation and consolidation of the
      counter-revolution consists in a combination of its three main
      forces, a combination excellently conceived and already put into
      practice:
      1. The Constitutional-Democratic Party, i. e., the real leader
         of the organised bourgeoisie, has, by withdrawing from the
         Cabinet, confronted it with an ultimatum, thus clearing the
         way for the Cabinet’s overthrow by the counter-revolution;
      2. The General Staff and the military leaders, with the
         deliberate or semi-deliberate assistance of Kerensky, whom
         even the most prominent Socialist-Revolutionaries now call a
         Cavaignac, have seized actual state power and have proceeded
         to shoot down revolutionary units at the front, disarm the
         revolutionary troops and workers in Petrograd and Moscow,
         suppress unrest in Nizhni-Novgorod, arrest Bolsheviks and ban
         their papers, not only without trial, but even without a
         government order. At present, basic state power in Russia is
         virtually a military dictatorship. This fact is still
         obscured by a number of institutions that are revolutionary
         in words but powerless in deeds. Yet it is so obvious and
         fundamental a fact that without under standing it, one cannot
         understand anything about the political situation.
      3. The Black Hundred-monarchist and bourgeois press, which has
         switched from hounding Bolsheviks to hounding the Soviets,
         the “incendiary” Chernov, etc., has indicated
         with the utmost clarity that the true meaning of the policy
         of military dictatorship, which now reigns supreme and is
      supported by the Cadetsand monarchists, is preparations for
      disbanding the Soviets. Many of the leaders of the S.R.s and
      Mensheviks, i. e., the present majority in the Soviets, have
      admitted and expressed this during the past few days, but, true
      to their petty-bourgeois nature, they shrug off this formidable
      reality with meaningless high-sounding phrases.

2.Theleaders of the Soviets and of the Socialist-Revolutionary
      and Menshevik parties, headed by Tsereteli and Chernov, have
      completely betrayed the cause of the revolution by putting it
      in the hands of the counter-revolutionaries and by turning
      themselves, their parties and the Soviets into mere fig-leaves
      of the counter-revolution.

Proofof this is that the Socialist-Revolutionaries and
      Mensheviks have betrayed the Bolsheviks and have tacitly agreed
      to close down their papers without daring to tell the people
      plainly and openly that they are doing so and why. By
      sanctioning the disarming of the workers and the revolutionary
      regiments, they have deprived themselves of all real power. They
      have turned into the most loud-mouthed ranters who help the
      reaction to “divert” the people’s attention until it
      is finally ready to disband the Soviets. It is impossible to
      understand anything at all about the present political situation
      without realising this complete and final bankruptcy of the
      S.R.s and Mensheviks and the present majority in the Soviets and
      without realising that their “Directory” and other
      masquerades are an absolute sham.

3.Allhopes for a peaceful development of the Russian revolution
      have vanished for good. This is the objective situation: either
      complete victory for the military dictatorship, or victory for
      the workers’ armed uprising; the latter victory is only possible
      when the insurrection coincides with a deep, mass upheaval
      against the government and the bourgeoisie caused by economic
      disruption and the prolongation of the war.

Theslogan “All Power to the Soviets!” was a slogan for
      peaceful development of the revolution which was possible in
      April, May, June, and up to July 5-9, i. e., up to the time when
      actual power passed into the hands of the military
      dictatorship. This slogan is no longer correct,
      for it does not take into account that power has changedhands
      and that the revolution has in fact been completely betrayed by
      the S.R.s and Mensheviks. Reckless actions, revolts, partial
      resistance, or hopeless hit-and-run attempts to oppose reaction
      will not help. What will help is a clear understanding of t.he
      situation, endurance and determination of the workers’ vanguard,
      preparation of forces for the armed uprising, for the victory of
      which conditions at present are extremely difficult, but still
      possible if the facts and trends mentioned above coincide. Let
      us have no constitutional or republican illusions of any kind,
      no more illusions about a peaceful path, no sporadic actions, no
      yieldingnowto provocation from the Black Hundreds and
      Cossacks. Let us gather forces, reorganise them, and resolutely
      prepare for the armed uprising, if the course of the crisis
      permits it on a really mass, country-wide scale. The transfer of
      land to the peasants is impossible at present without armed
      uprising, since the counter-revolutionaries, having taken power,
      have completely united with the landowners as a class.

Theaim of the insurrection can only be to transfer power to the
      proletariat, supported by the poor peasants, with a view to
      putting our Party programme into effect.

4.Theparty of the working class, without abandoning legal
      activity, but never for a moment overrating it, mustcombinelegal with illegal work, as it did in 1912-14.

Don’tlet slip a single hour of legal work. But don’t cherish
      any constitutional or “peaceful” illusions. Form
      illegal organisations or cells everywhere and at once for the
      publication of leaflets, etc. Reorganise immediately,
      consistently, resolutely, all along the line.

Actas we did in 1912–14, when we could speak about overthrowing
      tsarism by a revolution and an armed uprising, without at the
      same time losing our legal base in the Duma, the insurance
      societies, the trade unions, etc.

[1]Thearticle “The Political Situation” was first published in the
Kronstadt Bolshevik paperProletarskoye DyeloNo. 6 on August 2
(July 20), 1917, under the heading “Political Mood”.

Tosafeguard the newspaper against suppression by the
Provisional Government, the editors substituted “a resolute fight” for
“an armed uprising”. In this volume, the article appears according
to the manuscript.